September 2010

September 27, 2010

It was not all good news for the Cowboys coming out of the 27-13 victory against the Texans on Sunday.

The Cowboys got the first win of the season. But they may have lost guard Kyle Kosier and tight end Jason Witten. Both suffered sprained knees against the Texans and underment magnetic resonance imaging exams on Monday.

The results of the tests have yet to be revealed.

Kosier's injury was known during the game as he was helped from the field and replaced by Montrae Holland.

However, Witten played the entire game after spraining his right knee in the first half. I ran into him as he limped around the corner going to get the MRI on Monday morning.

He didn't think or at least hoped it wasn't too serious and believed the bye week this Sunday came at a fortunate time. It will be two weeks before the Cowboys have to play another game.

Depending on the severity of the sprain, that might not be enough time. It could be either a 2-4 week recovery or 4-6 week. We will know soon enough.

When the Cowboys played the Texans in preseason, the two teams had polar opposite approaches. The Texans left their starters in the game well into the third quarter while the Cowboy starters played very little in the second half. Houston approached the game like a regular season game and the Cowboys approached it like a meaningless exhibition. Dallas went into the game with a limited set of plays and worked more on technique and execution.

Houston went on to win 23-7 in that game and although most teams care little about preseason, Cowboys linebacker Bradie James admitted that there was a little payback involved in Dallas' 27-13 win yesterday.

The Cowboys were leading 27-6 when the Texans scored a touchdown with 1:15 remaining.

"I hate it that they scored at the end because defensively, we kind of came out not wanting those guys to score," James said. "We felt like the last game they scored too many touchdowns on us."

So the Cowboys did remember. And at least for one day and one game, it showed again how little preseason means.

The Texans and their fans desperately wanted a victory over the Cowboys yesterday. The Texans had already beaten the hated Colts at home and they had everything to gain. A victory would have elevated them from a two-game phenomenon to a legitimate contender. They would have been dancing with the term "elite." Plus they would have embarrassed the Cowboys with a third consecutive Dallas loss.

The Texans had everything to gain, but, again, they lost. The only team in the four professional sports league that has not made the playoffs was made to look very bad at home.

The fans certainly were excited and supportive. The Houston Chronicle reported today that the decibel level in Reliant Stadium reached a high of 117 yesterday, which is eight decibels below the pain threshold.

After their 27-13 loss to Dallas, however, the Texans were left only with rationalizations.

"There are a lot worse places to be than 2-1," quarterback Matt Schaub said after the game.

That's true, but the humbling thing for the Texans is the way they were dominated. They gained 99 yards in the last four minutes of the game on a desperation drive, a recovered onside kick, and three plays before an interception. Their high power offense had averaged better than 440 yards in the first two games, but they had less than 300 before those last two drives.

At the end of the day, instead of discussing whether they should be considered among the elite teams, the Texans suddenly are faced with a road trip to lowly Oakland. And based on their meager history, even a poor Raiders team poses a threat.

After catching 10 passes in each of the first two games, wide
receiver Miles Austin caught only two passes Sunday and was targeted only three
times.

The distribution on offense was much more diverse. Jason Witten,
who had only eight catches in the first two games, had seven receptions and, of
course, Roy Williams had a huge day with five catches for 117 yards and a TD.

With the victory, Wade Phillips tied Bum Phillips, his father, in
career victories with 82.

The sons leads, however, in overall record. Wade is 82-56 while
Bum is 82-77.

“It proves I’ve been in it a long time,” Wade said. “I mean, he’s
my hero. I think he’s one of the greatest coaches the I’ve ever been around. I’ve
been around several Hall of Fame head coaches. I’ve been around guys with 200
wins. He’s the bestr I’ve ever been around.”

Spoken like a good son.

And a footnote: Bum Phillips will celebrate his 87th birthday on
Wednesday.

When Wade Phillips went for a first down twice on fourth down in
the Cowboys’ first offensive possession Sunday, it seemed that he lacked
confidence in field goal kicker David Buehler.

Not true, the Dallas Cowboys coach said.

“We wanted to be real aggressive,” Phillips said.

Phillips was sensitive to coverage of Buehler during the week.
Buehler had missed field goals in each of the Cowboys first two games and each
came at a crucial time.

When it was reported that Buehler had a bad practice and missed
four field goals one day, Phillips complained to the media the next day and
stated that reporters lacked “the expertise” to judge Buehler.

Buehler responded on Sunday. After not getting a chance on the
first drive, he hit field goals of 49 and 40 yards in the 27-13 Cowboys
victory.

The 49-yarder came as time ran off the clock in the first half
and Phillips was so excited that he responded with a fist pump.

“It was important for the team,” Phillips said. “It just proves
you can watch a couple of kicks in practice and not know for sure.”

Phillips smiled after delivering the verbal jab at the media.

“He’s still a young guy,” Phillips continued, “but his
percentages are going up and that’s what we’re looking for. He’s got a nice
swing. He hits the ball good a high, high percentage of the time. That’s what
you’ve got to go on. I’ve seen kickers, really good ones that way, plus he’s
got the length. Like I said last week, a 48-yarder, a 49-yarder, the guys out
on the street right now are older kickers, might not try it. That’s important
too.”

DeMarcusWare faced a rookie left tackle making his first start in the season opener. He made one sack. He faced three left tackles last week as starter Chris Williams went down in the first quarter. He had no sacks. He faced a left tackle making his first career start Sunday -- Rashad Butler -- and came away with three sacks.

"DeMarcus has been playing well," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said. "He's an outstanding player, and he gives us everything he has."

It was the 14thmultiple sack game of Ware's career. He is now tied with Randy White for the third-most multi-sack games in club history since sacks became an official statistic in 1982.

Today's win gave Dallas its 400th win (including playoffs) since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The Cowboys become only the second NFL team since the merger to reach 400 wins. The Pittsburgh Steelers (404) were the first to claim 400 when they beat Denver on Nov. 9 2009.

With Arian Foster finishing with 106 rushing yards, the Dallas Cowboys defense gave up a 100-yard rusher for the first time since Le'Ron McClain went for 139 and Willis McGahee had 108 against Baltimore(12/20/08). Dallas' streak of 18 games without yielding a 100-yard rusher was the longest active streak in the league.

Felix Jones' 43 rushing yards tonight gave him 1,039 for his career to become the 22nd Dallas Cowboy to top 1,000 career rushing yards. He also passed Scott Laidlaw for 22nd on the team's all-time rushing yards list.

Danny McCray intercepted his first career pass with his fourth quartertheft of Matt Schaub.

With his two touchdown passes today, Tony Romo extended his streak ofconsecutive games with a touchdown pass to 15.

DeMarcus Ware finished today's game with 3.0 sacks to tie his careerhigh (five other times). It also marked the 14th multiple sack game ofhis career. He is now tied with Randy White for the third-mostmulti-sack games in club history since sacks became an officialstatistic:

Cowboys left guard Kyle Kosier injured his right knee in the fourth quarter Sunday. It's the same knee he sprained the medial collateral ligament in during training camp. Kosier was injured Aug. 18 and returned to practice Sept. 15, missing the season opener at Washington.

Kosier will have an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of the injury. The Cowboys have a bye next Sunday.